Three articles this week, one recurring finding — the competence that gets someone through the ten seconds that actually matter was never something an institution could fund, schedule, or train into existence, no matter how good its research department. A sheepdog, a shepherd, and a McDonald's cashier all knew something no committee could have written down in time.

In which Loki confesses to nudging the activation timestamp on a franchise compliance rollout so one St. Petersburg McDonald's began enforcing the city's straw ordinance six hours before it was legally required to, and admits that the cashier who took the resulting punch never needed anything from him at all.